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shareen17's review against another edition
4.0
This book has a lot of practical advice on improving family life, told in an informal, story-telling kind of style. The advice ranges from planning vacations, to discussing sensitive matters, to improving your sex-life, and much more. I don't really plan on following all this advice, but I'd probably be better off if I did.
lsparrow's review against another edition
4.0
I am always looking for new tools in my parenting tool box and I felt that this one had several new ones as well as new ways to look at family/parenting which I liked. I found the heternormative/ monogomous and christian lens challenging but still found it very insightful.
mary00's review against another edition
4.0
4 1/2 stars. I really loved this book which was chock full of suggestions to try with each family. What I liked most about it is that it didn't claim to be "the" definitive answer for family success, but rather admitted that some of the ideas would work for some families, and some for others. It starts off by telling the reader to just choose a few that work for them and ignore the others. The suggestions were backed up by intriguing research and anecdotes of the successful families that the author met with.
The book includes ideas for creating a flexible family, making family dinner successful, creating a family mission statement, "fighting" smarter, managing allowance, having difficult conversations, talking to children about sex, building strong marriages, creating great relationships between generations, making the physical home a strengthening influence on the family, making travel more fun, helping children have positive experiences from sports participation, and planning great family reunions, among many other things.
It was very readable and the author's voice was likable. I have already implemented the author's suggestion of having a weekly family meeting to some success. Each Sunday we meet together to discuss what our family has been doing well, and what we could do better as a family. We then vote on a couple areas to focus on each week and let the children help decide the consequences for follow-through. We have been happy with the results so far. There are also many other suggestions that I would like to give a try. In fact, I wish that I owned a copy of this book so that I could refer to it more often (I borrowed a copy from the library).
The book includes ideas for creating a flexible family, making family dinner successful, creating a family mission statement, "fighting" smarter, managing allowance, having difficult conversations, talking to children about sex, building strong marriages, creating great relationships between generations, making the physical home a strengthening influence on the family, making travel more fun, helping children have positive experiences from sports participation, and planning great family reunions, among many other things.
It was very readable and the author's voice was likable. I have already implemented the author's suggestion of having a weekly family meeting to some success. Each Sunday we meet together to discuss what our family has been doing well, and what we could do better as a family. We then vote on a couple areas to focus on each week and let the children help decide the consequences for follow-through. We have been happy with the results so far. There are also many other suggestions that I would like to give a try. In fact, I wish that I owned a copy of this book so that I could refer to it more often (I borrowed a copy from the library).
sarahareinhard's review against another edition
4.0
A friend and editor told me I should read this book. So I did. It was a fast read, and it made me highlight and think about many things, especially from a Catholic viewpoint. Feiler did a LOT of research, and he shares it extensively in a biography, notes, and throughout the text. I liked it, and I’d recommend it, for the most part.
shealennon's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
jrwren's review against another edition
3.0
It isn't bad as far as popular non-fiction goes. There are some chapters that I could do without, others may love them.
jwinchell's review against another edition
3.0
I liked that Feiler doesn't shy away from the tough & ugly parts of parenting & partnerhood & family life. His basic takeaways--adapt all the time, talk (a lot), go out and play--are good reminders of foundational patterns that each family can make work in their own way. It felt a little self-indulgent, though; the nature of his project and his way of describing his own family annoyed me just a bit.
treparker73's review against another edition
3.0
Good ideas! I wish I took notes before I returned to the library.